Memorial to fallen police officers unveiled outside Suffolk PBA headquarters

As the bagpipe played and a police helicopter flew overhead, Susan Ciano’s mind raced back to the day in February 2009 when her police officer husband, Glen, was killed by a drunken driver while responding to a call.

Officer Glen Ciano is among 29 Suffolk County Police Department members killed in the line of duty whose names are etched into a memorial unveiled Sunday outside Suffolk Police Benevolent Association headquarters in Brentwood.

“It’s been 16 years and it’s amazing how it comes back,” Ciano said following the ceremony revealing the wall to the families of fallen officers. “You really relive the day and that week.”

Suffolk PBA president Lou Civello said the memorial, similar to one maintained at department headquarters in Yaphank, was placed near the front door of the PBA office so each new Suffolk officer is reminded of the sacrifices made by officers who came before them and as an additional space for families to remember their loved ones.

“Their sacrifice is remembered every day by all who wear the uniform,” Civello said. “But it’s not just their sacrifice. Their families … continue to make that sacrifice each and every day, every holiday, every family milestone that their loved one is absent.”

Commissioner Kevin Catalina and representatives of the Detectives Association and the Superior Officers Association made additional remarks.

The names on the memorial range from Patrolman John J. Nolan, who died of a heart attack one day after a foot chase with a burglary suspect in 1960, to Emergency Service Section Officer Robert Kirwan, who died of 9/11-related cancer in September 2023. Additional names include Officer John “Jack” Jantzen, a 1991 shooting victim whose killer spent the last three decades of his life behind bars, to car bombing victim Det. Dennis Wustenhoff, whose killing in 1990 never led to an arrest.

Eleven of the fallen department members died of injuries involving motor vehicles, four from gun violence and the one bombing. Three officers died of heart attacks, one from a stroke, another from exposure to carbon monoxide and one from a fall. Six of the seven most recent Suffolk line-of-duty deaths were related to 9/11 cancer, with the other linked to COVID-19.

The new memorial includes blank space near the bottom for potential new names, an additional reminder of the dangers officers face in the line of duty.

Ciano said police families who have lost a loved one across Long Island and New York City support one another through their shared experiences. She aims to visit the memorial with the four grandchildren her husband never got to meet.

"They'll be able to come down here ... and understand the sacrifice," Ciano said.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.